Students launch Active Measures journal

May 24, 2012
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PRESS RELEASES

A group of IWP students have just launched the first student-run academic journal at The Institute of World Politics.

Last summer, these students presented the idea to the Academic Affairs Committee, and this past fall, an editorial committee of five students was established: Daniel Acheson, Samantha Borzi, Sarah Coulter, Ben Fricke, and Michael Webber.

The committee collected papers from students this past semester, and were pleased at the strong interest from the student body. Papers were selected that represented a diversity of opinions and had a high quality of research. One member of the editorial team found that, "It was hard to evaluate the papers, because there were so many good ones." Each member of the team then did the fine editing work for two of the papers that were selected.

"It's been a busy semester," comments Daniel Acheson, who was instrumental in spearheading the project. "Two of us on the committee were graduating this year, one of us is just getting married, and two of us are going to Oxford to study this summer."

The journal will serve as a forum through which students can contribute to the public discourse, and their scholarship can be presented to a wider audience. Ben comments, "It's very important for an academic institution to have a journal. In addition, IWP needs to emphasize its intercultural approach and the diversity of the school, and Active Measures is a great way to do this."

The name of the journal, Active Measures, refers to a set of influence operations and propaganda (disinformation and deception) used by the Soviet Union to persuade and to have a strategic impact. Mike Webber notes that, ""Active Measures" is viewed by many in the West as a derogatory term, but we named our journal Active Measures in an attempt to redefine it and take the word back from the Soviets. Essentially its a form of political warfare."

This summer, the editorial committee will meet to discuss a process to continue the journal. They are hoping to create a handbook of the editorial process for the journal for the use of future editorial committees. Daniel says, "The hope is that we will publish two editions of the journal each year."

Ben, who edited the political science journal at Wittenberg University, explains that, "A journal really is a team effort, and putting together a good team is the most important part for a successful journal." The editorial committee especially hopes to involve students from IWP's fall "freshman" class.

Many thanks to Charles Van Someren for formatting the journal into its print form, and to the faculty members, especially Dr. J. Michael Waller, who contributed their expertise.